Sanet de la Porte - Drowning
Sanet de la Porte, a paramedic based in *Vereeniging, was working a day shift when she received a call for a drowning incident at the Spidervalley area of the Vaal River.
At the scene, Sanet noticed a crowd of people gathered around the banks of the river. She pushed between the bystanders to discover a woman in the water. She had jumped in, trying to save her boyfriend who had already drowned.
While trying to talk to the victim from the riverbank, Sanet noticed that the woman could not swim and was starting to submerge. Immediately, she removed her shoes and jumped into the river.
By the time she reached the woman she was already face down in the water, but after Sanet pulled her head out and gave her a good shake, she regained consciousness. However, upon waking the victim became very frightened and confused, and started fighting Sanets efforts to swim her back to safety. Despite this, Sanet managed to control her and drag her to the riverbank, but the sudden drop from the bank created deep waters causing Sanet to have to tread water for ten minutes while keeping the woman above water level.
Then another hero emerged on the scene. A man in a private boat came out to assist the fire department in pulling Sanet and the distraught woman out of the water. Both the ladies were then pulled to safety and the victim survived with minor injuries.
*The incident took place at the end of 2007 at which time Sanet was in the employ of Netcare 911. Sanet joined ER24 in February 2008
